Western Kansas musician to lead a recording of new choral music
Image courtesy of Sonus Chamber Choir and Fotopro Media
Garden City, KS (Western Kansas News) – A professional choir with deep Kansas roots is set to professionally record their first album of choral music this July with local broadcaster and musician Kolby Van Camp at the helm.
While you might know him for his work on 99.9 The Rock in Garden City, Van Camp also possess a strong and eclectic background in professional classical music. Among those classical music pursuits was the founding of the Sonus Chamber Choir in the summer of 2023. Sonus, which means “sound” in Latin, is a professional recording ensemble based in Topeka. Their mission? The commissioning, performance, and recording of new music – that is, music that has never been recorded or performed before – and the elevation of the choral artform in Kansas and the Midwest.
Van Camp, who graduated from Kansas State University with dual degrees in music education and music composition in 2022 wants the ensemble to help expand the choral literature of today through the commissioning and recording of new music.
“Sonus Chamber Choir is more than just an ensemble that performs and records music,” says Van Camp. “We want to make a statement that good music can and does come out of the state of Kansas. Extraordinary musicians have hailed from all over the Sunflower State for generations. We want to continue and preserve that legacy through our recording projects.”
Recording is not the only thing this ensemble plans to do. Despite placing an artistic emphasis on the preservation of choral music through recordings, Sonus wants to help heighten the choral artform around the state and the region through select performances.
“While we are based out of Topeka, we certainly have plans to bring world-class musicianship across the state,” notes Van Camp. “Organizationally, we are still very young, but we have big plans to bring music beyond just Northeast Kansas. Our recordings help us do that. Anyone can access YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music. That’s the beauty of digital media in our digital age.”
Van Camp, who serves as founder, conductor, and artistic director, emphasized the importance of the need to create professional recordings of the music they are singing and his excitement to make those recordings a reality, starting with their first professional recording this July. The album, titled Sanctuary: Choral Music for Sacred Spaces, will feature three world-premiere recordings, including music by Kansas-based composer and music teacher, Nicholas Paradas.
“This album is a unique take on sacred literature which is often written for a ‘high church’ experience,” describes Van Camp. “We want to highlight the beauty of this music, for the sake of it being beautiful, while acknowledging the sacred tradition from which it originated. I’m proud of the repertoire selection, especially the new music we are going to bring into the world with this recording.”
The ensemble plans to record two new mass settings, one by Paradas, the other by Icelandic composer and conductor, Dr. Bragi Þor Valsson. Paradas, a Kansas State graduate, is currently a music teacher in the Junction City, KS school district. Dr. Valsson is an internationally recognized singer, actor, and musician, who currently holds a faculty position at the University of Arts in Reykjavík, Iceland.
The final composition that will be receiving its world premiere on the album was written specifically for Sonus Chamber Choir by composer-in-residence, Jesse Kaiser. Kaiser, a native of Columbia, South Carolina, sang with Sonus in their inaugural concert in the summer of 2023 when the ensemble performed GRAMMY® Award winning composer Eric Whitacre’s The Sacred Veil to critical acclaim. Kaiser, for this recording, was asked to write a “locus iste” setting, an ecclesiastical Latin text often used in the dedication of Catholic churches.
“It seemed like a no-brainer to ask Jesse to write us a setting of the ‘locus iste’ for an album of music meant to be heard in a sacred space like a church or cathedral,” chuckles Van Camp. “He did a masterful job at setting a short text into something beautiful that fits us very well.”
Kaiser also commented on the collaboration saying, “It’s an amazing opportunity to make great new music of the highest quality, which is very important for the continuation of our art.”
The ensemble plans to record their album in July, 2025, in Topeka. The multi-day recording session includes professional artists, recording engineers, videographers, and producers from Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Minnesota, and South Carolina. The album is anticipated to be commercially released worldwide in the spring of 2026. In the meantime, Sonus executives and board members, of whom local Garden City Community College faculty Jeremy Gigot is a member, are actively planning and fundraising for the 2026 concert and recording season.
For more information on the professional ensemble, visit their website here.
